Bill to end bear hunts emerges from Legislature as bill to study bear hunts

THE END TO BEAR HUNTS in Nevada was the purpose of SB82 at the beginning of the Legislature.

Tuesday it passed the Assembly – its second house — as a watered down version. Now it awaits the signature of Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Instead of banning Nevada’s bear hunt, which runs Sept. 15 to Dec. 31, the bill will direct the Nevada Board of Wildlife to conduct a study on the issue.

It passed 24-6. One of the no votes was Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks.

“The bill pre-supposes that the Wildlife Commissioners and the Department of Wildlife have not already done this,” Hansen said. “Having been involved in this process since it began about three years ago, I can assure this body, they have talked to everybody possible – the people pro and con on this whole thing. And the season they came up with is based on scientific, verifiable information.

“The reality is this, the eastern portion of the Sierra population of black bears in Nevada are part of the same herd that is in California. California harvested 1,900 black bears, including hunting in the Tahoe basin,” Hansen said.

From 2005 to 2010, hunters killed 1,163 bears in California counties bordering Nevada hunting according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

Twenty-five bears were killed in Nevada hunts in 2011 and 2012, wildlife officials said. The hunting tags were worth more than $50,000 to the state, according to published reports.

“Trying to appease people who are opposed to this hunt is pretty much impossible,” Hansen said. “Nevada did shut down the Tahoe portion of that hunt, trying to make them happy and it has been a complete failure. They will never be happy. So we need to recognize that and close this wound that has been reopened.”

Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, supported the bill.

“Last session, while chairing the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining Committee, this was a very big issue,” Carlton said. “And we kept telling folks that we didn’t want to go any further or make any decisions because we didn’t have any data.

“This bill will have the Board of Wildlife Commissioners go back, look at what has happened since they instituted the hunt and be able to have actual facts and figures, so we can have a rational discussion and hopefully be able to set some of the passions around this issue aside,” Carlton said.

Having the Board of Comm. and NDoW do this study, will be like having foxes and coyotes watching and studying chickens!! Are You Kidding me!! We need some non-partial, certified BIOLOGISTS, to do this study!!!!!

About this blog

Ray Hagar is the political reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal and a fifth-generation Nevadan. Hagar is also a co-host for the Nevada Newsmakers statewide television program. He is the co-author of "Johnson-Jeffries: Dateline Reno," a book about the 1910 "Fight of the Century" in Reno that pitted black world champion Jack Johnson against the "Great White Hope," Jim Jeffries